Statistical Modelling of The Effect of Alcohol and Sound Intensity on Response to Fire Alarms

Hasofer, Abraham and Thomas, Ian and Ball, Michelle and Bruck, Dorothy
(2005)
Statistical Modelling of The Effect of Alcohol and Sound Intensity on Response to Fire Alarms.
In: 8th International Symposium of the International Association for Fire Safety Science, Sept 2005, Beijing.

Abstract

A stochastic model for analysing the response of sleeping subjects to sound stimuli whose intensity varies with time is developed, generalizing a model developed in [1] for analysing the response of sleeping subjects to sound stimuli of constant intensity. The model is used to analyse the results of an experiment carried out by Ball and Bruck [2] to compare the response time of sleeping subjects to three different auditory stimuli. The sound intensity increased steadily with time and the young adult subjects (seven males and seven females) were tested when sober and with blood alcohol levels of 0.05 and 0.08. The analysis revealed that alcohol had a very significant effect in slowing down the response of all subjects. It also revealed that females responded faster than males at all alcohol levels. The great advantage of using the stochastic model is that it permits the estimation of the probability that the response time will exceed high values that may put the sleeping occupant at a severe risk of death or injury in a fire.

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Item
(Lecture)

Additional Information:

Published as Hasofer, AM, Thomas IR, Bruck D & Ball M (2005) Statistical modelling of the effect of alcohol and sound intensity on response to fire alarms. Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium of the International Association for Fire Safety Science, Beijing, Sept 2005.